Dimetrodon ancient reptile, new discoveries

An international team of paleontologists suggests dimetrodon – a 4-m-long prehistoric reptile that lived during the early Permian period, between 295 million and 272 million years ago, and went extinct about 40 million years before the appearance of first dinosaurs – was the first terrestrial vertebrate to develop serrated ziphodont teeth.

Dimetrodon was the top of the terrestrial food chain in the early Permian and is considered to be the forerunner of mammals.